IBM Cognos Planning enables finance organizations with even the most complex business models to build enterprise-wide plans, budgets, and forecasts faster and more efficiently.

You can create, compare, and evaluate business scenarios, conditions, drivers, rates, and assumptions. Proceed from what-is to evaluate what-if scenarios critical to forecasting future performance. The result: improved predictability and greater accountability across the enterprise.

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Rated 4 out of 5 by Vitalij532 from Allows you to plan, analyze, and report data.Valuable Features:* Flexible: You can do almost anything you want* Can be combined with other software* Calculates values* Decides who can write and read the values* Can be used to design your reports, almost exactly as you want* Can be used to plan/analyze/report anything. If you miss some stuff, you can program it and combine it with TM1.I don't think there are many tools out there that are as flexible as this solution.Room for Improvement:The surface design needs to be improved. The disadvantage is the old-fashioned surface of IBM Cognos TM1.I would like to see a more modern design for IBM Cognos TM1 Perspectives/Architect. It is not as modern as some of the other products with which you can do your analysis and planning.Use of Solution:I have used this solution for several years.Stability Issues:The last version,10.1, was not really stable at the beginning. However, the latest version is fine.Scalability Issues:I did not encounter any scalability issues.Technical Support:The technical support is okay. You can also find lots of answers in different forums on the internet.Previous Solutions:We were not using any other solution previously.Initial Setup:The initial setup was not complex.Other Solutions Considered:I personally have not evaluated other options. However, my company has looked at other solutions.Other Advice:It is the best solution you can have. However, you have to know what you need for sure and what you want to do with the tool.Every product is established for some special needs. It depends on what you need. You can choose the right tool accordingly.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We are a premium business partner.

Date published: 2017-03-05

Rated 4 out of 5 by ITAnalyst053 from It provides data storage with write-back ability. Businesses familiar with Excel can use it.Valuable Features:The most valuable features are the TM1 Perspective client and the storage of data with write-back ability. Since most businesses are familiar with Excel, they are easily able to use this tool. Also, calculations are faster compared to any other tool for quick forecasting and budgeting.Improvements to My Organization:This tool is able to promptly consolidate all business unit data for enterprise-view and understand the area of improvement, instead of a traditional Excel-based disparate solution.Room for Improvement:Data visualization and development interface are areas which need to be worked on.Improvement in data visualizationCurrently in TM1, web and perspective data is visualized with limited dashboarding capability and also for creating fancy reports for top management. There is a need for incorporation of functionalities similar to QlikView or Tableau solutions.Improvement in development interfaceIn TM1, the conventional development interface of process and rules are not development friendly, thus reducing productivity. I would suggest to have functionalities similar to that of Java development with Eclipse, auto population of functions and validations, etc.Use of Solution:We have used this solution for around more than 10 years.Stability Issues:It is one of the stable tools available for forecasting and budgeting.Scalability Issues:I have not encountered any scalability issues. Since this tool is in-memory based, it also vastly depends on the hardware infrastructure capability, especially the RAM.Technical Support:Moderate level of support is required for this tool. Business individuals can perform some of the activity themselves, provided they are equipped with necessary access and appropriate solutions during initial training.Previous Solutions:Previously, multiple Excel sheets were used by us. We not only found it difficult to consolidate but also calculations were not centralized and had no security around the data. However, TM1 provides centralized data in a secured manner and calculations are done on the fly without any delay.Initial Setup:The initial setup was straightforward. IBM provides a license based on the requirement and infrastructure, which need to be provisioned as per estimated size of the model.Cost and Licensing Advice:The pricing policy depends on your requirement and IBM provides an entire range of options as per the need.Other Solutions Considered:Tool evaluation has been done based on the requirement and capability of the tool. TM1 is the best capable tool to satisfy most of our requirements.Other Advice:For forecast, budgeting and reporting financial data, TM1 is the best tool in the market. So, I would say that it would be wise to proceed with this tool in any organization for improvised end results.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Date published: 2016-11-27

Rated 5 out of 5 by Mucahit Erdal from It is a modeling tool that allows us to create customized budgeting, planning and reporting solutions.Valuable Features:It provides all the required functionalities for Financial Performance Management, such as planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation and dimensional reporting and analysis.TM1 is actually a modeling tool that allows us create our own customized budgeting, planning and reporting solutions.Improvements to My Organization:We have been using this software to implement solutions in many different areas of business.For example, in budget applications, it helps a lot in running the budgeting process properly. All budget inputs, calculations, submissions, reporting and analysis during the budgeting process are handled with TM1 properly.Room for Improvement:The CAFE Excel plug-in needs to be improved to handle all the features of older TM1 Perspectives plug-in for Excel.CAFE is an Excel add-in that allows interacting with TM1 data from within Excel, especially for generating Excel-based reports out of TM1 data. It is actually called IBM Cognos Analysis For Excel, but usually referred to as IBM Cognos CAFE. It comes with TM1. For the same purpose, we have been using IBM Cognos Perspectives for Excel for many years. CAFE is a newer tool than Perspectives, and it needs to be improved to cover some of the functionalities that already exist in Perspectives.We know that IBM is already working on improving CAFE. In the upcoming release, probably, we will see a lot better functionality in CAFE.Use of Solution:We have been using it for the last seven years, since version 9.4.Stability Issues:It is a very stable software product; no major stability issues.Scalability Issues:Scalability is the best feature of TM1; it is highly scalable. As the data and model grow, all we need to do is to keep the HW aligned with the increasing size of the model.Technical Support:All technical support information is available by Google search, but for new issues, IBM provides a good level of remote support.Previous Solutions:Prior to TM1, we had been using IBM Cognos Planning.TM1 is a lot more scalable than IBM Cognos Planning. IBM Cognos Planning is only an Enterprise Planning tool. However, TM1 is also an OLAP reporting and analysis tool, in addition to being an enterprise planning tool. TM1 provides more capabilities for customization.Initial Setup:TM1 is not a packaged application. It is an application development platform and toolset for performance management. Hence, you need to do a good implementation project to get an application built based on your requirements. Therefore, it is important to work with people with the proper technical skills and business knowledge. Technical installation of the platform was relatively straightforward.Cost and Licensing Advice:For companies that require less than 50 users in TM1, it might be better to get IBM Cognos Express PM licenses. If you require more users, then you might need to get IBM Cognos PM licenses. There is also an unlimited user licensing model, which is based on server PVUs.Other Advice:I recommend making a proper requirement analysis and model design before start developing models with TM1.In your first implementation of TM1, it is very important to work with experienced TM1 developers.It is better to choose TM1 consultants with both technical and financial skills and knowledge.Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:My company is an IBM Business Partner and we provide implementation services to companies using IBM Cognos TM1.

Date published: 2016-09-30

Rated 4 out of 5 by Ghislain LAMY from Saves time when creating reports but I'd like to see automation of feeders and more intuitive and interactive reportingValuable Features:This product is entirely designable and flexible, you can answer to very complex requirements.Cognos TM1 is particularly adapted to Budget planning. You can input data and comments easily.Real time calculation, TM1 calculate reports in real time, each time you refresh it.Ownership: one of the goal of this product is that end users like CFO's can make modifications (model, business rules, etc.) without the help of the IT.Improvements to My Organization:As a consultant I implemented this product in many organizations, mainly in finance departments. Their reporting and budgeting processes were improved at several levels: Time saving to produce the reports, budget/forecast cycle shortened from quarters to months, access and security of data and more. Many improvements can be gained from this process automation.Room for Improvement:The product need to be more integrated. It is easy to be lost in all the Cognos suite and to make them communicate/connect it to TM1, and the pricing is too complex too.TM1 is a bit expensive, especially for small companies who shoud look more at products like Jedox or Tableau etc.. Who propose all in 1 products with good looking vizualisation componentsTM1 need to automate more things like feeders. When you write a business rule in TM1, you also have to write another rule called “feeders” to tell TM1 where to do the calculation. But it appears to be difficult to automatize for IBM engineers.Use of Solution:6 yearsDeployment Issues:As with all IT projects we encountered several issues: servers not received in time, users workstations configuration not ready for Cognos TM1, lack of communication around the project. I don’t remember any issue caused by the product itself.Stability Issues:Cognos TM1 can be sensible to changes of configurations. Sometimes it implies several files and services on the user workstation (Excel, web, ISS). You need to remember the technical requirements of the product before your change something if you don’t want to have some bad surprises.Scalability Issues:One of the advantages of TM1 is it's adaptability and it's capacity to calculate a lot of data in real time. The issues you can encounter with this kind of product will be mainly due to a problem of design of TM1 database. With the experience you learn how to design your model flexible enough to resist to any scalability issues.Previous Solutions:I created a model with Qlikview at its early beginning in France. But it was more adapted to simple data/KPI visualization than budget planning with complex business rules which are the main parts of my projects.Initial Setup:For me the first times was a little complex, management and finance are more my specialty than IT. I had to learn how to install the product and what to ask IT to prepare the installation.Cost and Licensing Advice:Most of the setup cost come from the consulting charges, around 130, 000 euros for a 6 months project. After you add the cost of the TM1 licenses, not so expensive, depends of the number and type of users.Other Solutions Considered:I did a comparative study between Qlikview, Cognos TM1, and Microsoft BI several years ago for a one of the world leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. QliKview was more “sexy” than the others products but couldn’t match with all the business requirements, and Microsoft BI was not flexible enough.Other Advice:Before implementing this kind of product you have to make sure that it matches with your needs. Its unnecessary to implement such a product to replace 2 or 3 reports on Excel. Then for implementation, look for experienced TM1 professionals, which have successfully implemented this tool several times and with almost the same needs.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.